This invention relates to a photochemical reactor for carrying out a photoreaction. More specifically, the present invention is directed to a photochemical reactor adapted for irradiating a reactant feed with actinic light and for performing a photoreaction such as photosynthesis, photodecomposition, photoreduction, photooxidation, photocatalytic reaction, photosterilization, photocleaning, photoheating, photodeodorization or photocuring.
A typical known reaction apparatus for carrying out a photoreaction includes a tubular linear reactor and a tubular linear lamp disposed in parallel with and adjacent to the reactor. Also known is an apparatus having a tubular linear lamp and a helical tubular reactor wound around the lamp. Further, an apparatus having a tubular linear lamp inserted into a central hole of a cylindrical reactor is known. An apparatus is further known in which light from a linear tubular lamp is reflected on a reflector and is redirected to a reactor. These known photochemical reactors have the following problems.
With the apparatus in which a linear tubular reactor and a linear tubular lamp are juxtaposed in parallel, only a part of the light from the lamp is irradiated on the reactor.
The light irradiation efficiency is improved when the reactor is helical and wound around the linear tubular lamp. However, the improvement is not so significant. Moreover, the helical reactor is apt to be broken upon collision with a hard thing.
In the case of the apparatus having a tubular linear lamp coaxially disposed in a cylindrical reactor, the size of the reactor is unavoidably large. With such an apparatus, therefore, it is impossible to effectively perform photoreaction of a small amount of reactant.
Furthermore, the above-described conventional photochemical reactor apparatuses have a problem that, when a jacket is mounted around the lamp for cooling the lamp with a cooling medium fed to the jacket, the light from the lamp is partly absorbed by the jacket and the cooling medium before arriving at the reactor. Additionally, when the photochemical reaction is carried out with the use of vacuum ultraviolet rays, the conventional apparatuses must be disposed in a vacuum chamber or in an oxygen-free chamber.